My Husband, The Baby Whisperer

I can't believe this. After all the time it took to do my routine and try to soothe a crying baby to nap, my husband does it in a snap.

Here I am holding in the baby in the chair as he struggles and cries until his eyes finally close, then carefully put him in the crib, so that I don't jolt him awake. Then I wait for his eyes to stop fluttering, then completely close. I then leave the room.

My husband, on the other hand, swaddles him up really good in the crib, pops the pacifer in, partly closes the door, then walks away while the baby's eyes are still open.

What happens? The baby falls asleep! Course with both our methods, we usually have to go in shortly afterwards and pop the pacifier back in when he cries. But, after that, he usually goes down hopefully for at least an hour. I might have to stay with him a little afterwards cuz he's fussy, but with Jay, he puts a drop of the gas medicine so it gives Wes a little more to suck on as is not as fussy.

Also, with Jay's method, he's more self-soothing himself, which is what I wanted! I just never really thought of doing it this way cuz I guess I'm too much of a softy! Before I had Wes, I was all for crying it out. Now that I have him, I couldn't do it. I thought for sure if I did it the way Jay does it, he would be crying it out. Yes, he cried when I tried to put him down for a nap, but I was always with him. I didn't want him to feel like I was abandoning him. We tried it one time way before, and it seemed to not work. I felt afterwards that I broke my trust with the baby and that was why Wes was always fighting to go down for naps. From then on, I felt I had to "help" him get to sleep. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I was really conditioning him to always get to sleep with my help.

Jay said to me it's our own preception on how we think the baby is thinking and feeling. He's right. I'm the type of person who has a really hard time taking naps and needs someone or something to help me wind down to go to sleep. When the baby starts to look tired, but his eyes are still open, I'm assuming that he's going to need a lot of help winding down. Jay, on the other hand, can easily go to sleep. His perception is more basic. Baby will go down if swaddled properly and pacifier is in mouth. Don't worry if his eyes are open, he's not crying. When he's crying, then go in.

I said to Jay today, "why couldn't you show this to me on Thursday?!?" (he's going back to work tomorrow) I want to test it out some more with him there just to make sure it works, for him to oversee that I'm doing a proper swaddle, and for him to hold me back when I want to rush into the room.

I hate it when things throw me for a loop. On one hand, I'm happy that it is working and that he will be able to self-soothe himself. On the other hand, I'm nervous that I won't do things right tomorrow and the whole thing explodes in my face. In situations like this, my confidence goes out the window and I get stressed out. I just need to stay strong and keep telling myself I can do this. Wish me luck!